Environmental Policy: International Commitments

Fredrik L. Benu

Nusa Cendana University

Instructional Goals • General Instructional Goal:

Student can catch-up with all the international commitments of environment taken by many governments in the conventional development process to ensure prosperity for people now and for the next generation

• Indicated Instructional Goals:

Student can identify and elaborate all international commitments about environmental issue in the development process

Student can criticize all the commitments regarding pro and cons of each agreement

International Commitment for Environment

Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit • In 1992, more than 100 heads of state met in Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil for the first international Earth Summit convened to address urgent problems of environmental protection and socio-economic development.

• The assembled leaders signed the Convention on Climate Change & Biological Diversity, endorsed the Rio Declaration & the Forest Principles, & adopted Agenda 21

• The Commissions on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements.

• It was agreed that a five year review of Earth Summit progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session.

• This special session of the UN General Assembly took stock of how well countries, international organizations and sectors of civil society have responded to the challenge of the Earth Summit.

• The Commissions on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements.

• It was agreed that a five year review of Earth Summit progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session.

“Statement of Commitment”

1. At the nineteenth special session of the United Nations General Assembly, we -… - have gathered to review progress achieved over the five years that have passed since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and to re-energize our commitment to further action on goals and objectives set out by the Earth Summit

2. We launched a new global partnership for sustainable development - It is founded on a global consensus and political commitment at the highest level. Agenda 21, 1/ adopted at Rio de Janeiro, addresses the pressing environment and development problems of today and also aims at preparing the world for the challenges of the next century in order to attain the long-term goals of sustainable development

… continued 3. Our focus at this special session has been to accelerate

the implementation of Agenda 21 in a comprehensive manner and not to renegotiate its provisions or to be selective in its implementation. We reaffirm that Agenda 21 remains the fundamental prog of action for achieving sustainable development. We reaffirm all the principles contained in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 2/ and the Forest Principles We are convinced that the achievement of sustainable development requires the integration of its economic, environmental and social components. We recommit to working together - in the spirit of global partnership - to reinforce our joint efforts to meet equitably the needs of present and future generations.

… continued 4. We acknowledge that a number of positive results

have been achieved, but we are deeply concerned that the overall trends with respect to sustainable development are worse today than they were in 1992. We emphasize that the implementation of Agenda 21 in a comprehensive manner remains vitally important and is more urgent now than ever.

5. We recommit ourselves to the global partnership established at the UN Conference on Environment and Development & to the continuous dialogue and action inspired by the need to achieve a more efficient and equitable world economy, as a means to provide a supportive international climate for achieving environment and development goals.

… continued

6. We commit ourselves to ensuring that the next comprehensive review of Agenda 21 in the year 2002 demonstrates greater measurable progress in achieving sustainable dev. The present Prog. for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 is our vehicle for achieving that goal. We commit ourselves to fully implementing this Prog.

UN Climate Change Conference 1997

• The Kyoto Protocol treaty was negotiated in December 1997 at the city of Kyoto, Japan.

• "The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990

… continued

• The goal is to lower overall emissions from six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs, and PFCs - calculated as an average over the five-year period of 2008-12

• National targets range from 8% reductions for the European Union and some others to 7% for the US, 6% for Japan, 0% for Russia, and permitted increases of 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland.“

• The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

… continued • An international treaty intended to bring countries

together to reduce global warming and to cope with the effects of temperature increases that are unavoidable after 150 years of industrialization

• The provisions of the Kyoto Protocol are legally binding on the ratifying nations, and stronger than those of the UNFCCC

• The Kyoto Protocol sets specific emissions reduction targets for each industrialized nation, but excludes developing countries

• To meet their targets, most ratifying nations would have to place restrictions on their biggest polluters and manage transportation to reduce emissions from automobiles

Bali Road Map

• At the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007, countries agreed to step up their efforts to combat climate change and adopted the "Bali Road Map“

• Bali Road Map consists of a number of forward-looking decisions to facilitate discussions on future actions on climate change. The deadline for agreement was December 2009 in Copenhagen

The Bali Road Map included two "tracks" of negotiations

• The Convention track: These negotiations centred around the Bali Action Plan, which had four main "building blocks" – mitigation, adaptation, technology, and financing, as well as a shared vision for long-term cooperative action including a long-term global goal for emission reductions.

• The Kyoto Protocol track: This deals with the commitments for the industrialized countries (Annex I Parties) under the Kyoto Protocol for the period beyond 2012 when the first period of emission reduction commitments (2008-2012) expires. In particular, talks were focused upon emission reduction targets and means of implementation.

… continued

• The negotiations were conducted in two ad hoc working groups - one on Long-term Cooperative Action (the AWG-LCA) and one on the Kyoto Protocol (the AWG-KP) - and are distinct in a number of ways.

• The broader Bali Action Plan track considered how to significantly upscale all climate policy issues, including nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and national adaptation programs. (NAPs) in developing countries.

• The Bali Action Plan also included discussions of new policy areas, such as how to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD)

Copenhagen Summit

• The Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out in 2012. To keep the process on the line there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol.

• At the conference in Copenhagen 2009 the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet for the last time on government level before the climate agreement need to be renewed.

• Governmental representatives from 170 countries joined the Conference accompanied by other governmental representatives.

Four essential issues that had been addressed

• How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?

• How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?

• How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?

• How is that money going to be managed?

Key points of the accord

• To keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2°C

• To list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020

• $30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012

• $100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing

• Reiterating past intentions such as providing mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry

Paris World Climate Summit

Key References

• McBay, A., Keith, L. and Jensen, D., 2011. Deep Green

Resistance. Seven Stories Press, New York

• Seneca, J.J. & Tausing, M.K., 1984. Environmental

Economics. Prentice-Hall and Englewood Cliffs, New

Jersey.

• Smith, L.C. 2011. The World in 2050, Four Forces Shaping

Civilization Northern Future. Penguin Book Ltd., London,

England

• Stiglitz, J.E. 2013. The Price of Inequality. W.W. Norton &

Company, London, England

• Turner, K., Pearce, D., & Bateman, I., 1994. Environmental

Economics: An Elementary Introduction, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London, England